The Nashville Statement, and Let's Not Try So Hard to Love People to Hell

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood released The Nashville Statement, a new Christian doctrinal missive on modern sexuality, Tuesday. Since its release, there’s been much controversy and confusion on the subject.Here is what you need to know.

The Nashville Statement, which was written by the members of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, a Louisville-based organization formed in 1987, is a Christian organization’s response to modern sexuality and how sexuality should be viewed through a biblical lens.

The statement expresses concern at the deteriorating reliance on God and faith and is comprised of 14 points covering issues from abstinence to traditional marriage to transgenderism — all based on a biblical understanding of human sexuality.

 “As Western culture has become increasingly post-Christian,” the statement’s preamble begins, “it has embarked upon a massive revision of what it means to be a human being.”

 “We are not our own,” it continues. “Our true identity, as male and female persons, is given by God. It is not only foolish, but hopeless, to try to make ourselves what God did not create us to be.”

● Article 1 affirms that God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman and says the institution is to be held as sacred as God’s relationship with His church. It goes on to say that homosexual or polygamous relationships were not designed by God, and thus, are not of God.

● Article 2 condemns infidelity and relationships outside the parameters of a Christian marriage.

● Article 3 states that Adam and Eve were created distinctly male and distinctly female and in God’s image, meaning that, despite their differences, men and women are equal in dignity and worth.

● Article 4 reiterates that differences between genders are what make God’s human creation unique and “are meant for human good and human flourishing.”

● Article 5 says that the differences between male and female reproductive organs are what determine the distinctions between the male and female genders and that “physical anomalies” or “psychological conditions” do not nullify God’s design for the two genders.

● Article 6 affirms that all men and women were created in God’s image and are equal in God’s eyes — including those born with a “physical disorder of sex development” Such disorders, the article says, do not make those afflicted incapable of obeying and walking with Christ.

● Article 7 tackles homosexual and transgender self-conceptions and states that male and female are designated only by God, for His holy purposes, according to Scripture.

● Article 8 says that same-sex attraction does not put “a person outside the hope of the gospel.”

● Article 9 condemns sexual immorality — whether heterosexual or homosexual — as a result of sin’s distortion of God’s intended purity and marital covenant.

● Article 10 states that approving transgenderism or homosexuality is sinful and a “departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.”

● Article 11 reminds Christians to speak the truth about sexuality in love to both men and women alike and to avoid speaking in a way that dishonors God’s design of His children.

● Article 12 speaks of God’s transformative power to change lives, professes that Christ can enable His followers to fight sinful desires those walking on a sinful path is absolute, and declares that God’s grace can forgive all sexual sins.

● Article 13 says that God’s grace enables people to forsake transgenderism and understand that they have been divinely created as male or female and that there is a “God-ordained link” between biological sex and gender self-conception.

● Article 14 affirms that Christ’s death and resurrection provides the opportunity for forgiveness of all sins and that no sinner is beyond God’s reach for salvation.

Who signed the Nashville Statement?

● John Piper, pastor, author, and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary
● Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
● Francis Chan, best-selling author and pastor
● Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family
● Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council
● Dennis Rainey, founder and former president of FamilyLife
● Thom S. Rainier, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources
● Christiana Holcomb, legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom
● Paul Nyquist, president of Moody Bible Institute

Others who signed the statement include Christian professors, authors, pastors, speakers, CEOs, magazine editors, counselors, and more.

Nashville, Tennessee, Mayor Megan Barry blasted the statement in a Tuesday tweet.  “The so-called ‘Nashville Statement’ is poorly named and does not represent the inclusive values of the city & people of Nashville.”

Civil rights activist DeRay McKesson wrote, “The God I know does not support the #NashvilleStatement.”

Pastor John Pavlovitz had a vulgar reference for the Nashville Statement. He wrote, “I have my own statement on the #Nashville Statement. It could be lots of words but honestly I could probably narrow it down to just a finger.”

Additionally, The Human Rights Campaign decried the statement as “a tool to discriminate against LGBTQ people.”  They added, “Faith should be welcoming and accepting.”

Greg Carey, Professor of the New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary, even penned an essay for The Huffington Post, in which he effectively called the Nashville Statement irrelevant.

“Why draft a big statement, and why publicize it?” Carey asked. “The answer is simple. Pretty much nobody cares what [the Christian right thinks] anymore. The day is past when the media seeks out right wing preachers to weigh in on social values. Their public audience shrinking, their public presence waning, and their credibility shot to hell, the Christian right needs attention.”

Despite these, the articles contained in the Nashville Statement are a simple declaration of Christian orthodoxy on human sexuality, sin, sexual orientation, and identity.

Those Christians who penned, signed, and distributed the statement are, like many Christians, unanimous in their belief that the Bible is the absolute Word of God and that, according to the Bible, God declares sexual immorality — to include homosexuality, transgenderism, infidelity, and more — sinful.

In the Bible, God has also stated that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman and that any sexual relationship outside of the bonds marriage is sinful.

However, if you read the entire statement, nowhere does it call for governmental, societal, or even religious intervention against those who disagree with the missive — it simply expresses the Bible’s views and offers God’s love and acceptance for all, regardless of their human behaviors.

Matt Walsh’s Take

Outrage erupted this week when a group of Evangelical leaders released what is being called the Nashville Statement..

I am thrilled that this was published and I applaud the Christian leaders who signed it. The basic principles espoused are right, good, and fundamental. They’re rooted in Scripture and consistent with what Christianity has taught for 2,000 years.

The Nashville Statement is, in a word, redundant. But its redundancy by no means renders it unnecessary. To the contrary, though these concepts are as old as time and well known to any half-serious Christian, we live in a society where they must be shouted from the rooftop again and again and again. Every Christian leader, if he is to consider himself a Christian leader, must be clear and unequivocal. Many Christians could not tell you how their own pastors feel about this subject, because they’ve never once heard it addressed (I have attended many such churches). This is a shame and a scandal, and it explains why many of those same Christians eventually come to the conclusion that matters of sexual morality are unimportant, and a Christian is free to decide for himself what is acceptable and what is not.

St. Paul proclaimed that he is “not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes,” yet a significant number of pastors, priests, and Christian scholars have revealed themselves to be profoundly ashamed of it. So, as the throngs of unbelievers lash out at the signers, these “progressive” Christians peeked out of their hiding places to admonish those who wrote it and those who agree with it for their lack of “love.” They sensed another opportunity to score points with the world by condemning Biblical truths as “unloving,” and they took it, like they always do.

As just one example, an alleged priest named Father James Martin responded with some sweet and sappy declarations of his own, meant to counteract the terrible and bigoted Nashville Statement. He proclaimed that “LGBT people are some of the holiest people I know” and that “God loves LGBT people,” etc. Yes, obviously it’s true that God loves LGBT people, but the clear insinuation is that one cannot believe God loves LGBT people and also affirm Biblical teachings on sexual morality. He sets up a false choice between love and truth. This is the game that Satan plays in our culture, and men like James Martin are more than happy to be his pawns in it.

Indeed, the Martins of the world are far more dangerous than blatant heretics. To my knowledge, Martin has never flat out said that the Bible is wrong in its teachings on sexual morality. Rather, he shouts down any conversation about sexual morality by insisting that God loves gay people, as if anyone has disagreed with that notion. This is the most common method employed by the “Christian leaders” who wish to pervert and destroy Christianity from within. Instead of publicly contradicting Christian teachings about sexuality and gender, they simply refuse to discuss the subject except to proclaim that God loves everyone regardless of what they do in the bedroom. This is supposed to be the “loving” approach.

It isn’t.

It’s the coward’s approach. The traitorous approach. The selfish approach. The most efficient approach for ensuring that as many people as possible remain in their sin as they slide into Hell. I won’t call it hateful. It’s worse than hateful. It’s indifferent. What most defines “progressive” Christianity is its utter indifference to the fate of human souls. It abandons sinners to their sin. It leaves them in their confusion and intentionally feeds into the lies they tell themselves.

It is perhaps the worst thing that has happened on Earth since the Fall, because it has packed Hell so full that I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a waiting list to get in the door. The greatest things become the worst when they are corrupted. Satan was the highest angel in Heaven before he became the ruler of Hell. Christianity — stripped of its truth, refashioned to encourage the very sins Christ died to free us from — turns into a kind of elevator transporting souls quickly and directly into the eternal fire. Loving? This sort of “love” will be little comfort down there.

The Nashville Statement is truly loving because it is truly Christian. It is a thousand times more loving than any pointless, crowd pleasing sermon about tolerance and inclusivity. In relaying a few fundamental truths in a plain and uncompromising way, it loves by shedding light into the darkness. That, after all, is what love ought to do. There is no other kind of love.

Acknowledgement:  Glenn Beck and Matt Walsh